¹⁴ I will scatter his servants and warriors to the four winds and send the sword after them.

² Place a third of it at the center of your map of Jerusalem. After acting out the siege, burn it there. Scatter another third across your map and chop it with a sword. Scatter the last third to the wind, for I will scatter my people with the sword.

²¹ And all his best warriors^[a] will be killed in battle, and those who survive will be scattered to the four winds. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.

⁴ Then a section of the city wall was broken down. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians,^[a] the soldiers waited for nightfall and escaped^[b] through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden. Then they headed toward the Jordan Valley.^[c]

⁵ But the Babylonian^[d] troops chased the king and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered.

²¹ “Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: How terrible it will be when all four of these dreadful punishments fall upon Jerusalem—war, famine, wild animals, and disease—destroying all her people and animals.

¹⁷ “Or suppose I were to bring war against the land, and I sent enemy armies to destroy both people and animals.

¹⁰ Parents will eat their own children, and children will eat their parents. I will punish you and scatter to the winds the few who survive.

¹¹ “As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will cut you off completely. I will show you no pity at all because you have defiled my Temple with your vile images and detestable sins. ¹² A third of your people will die in the city from disease and famine. A third of them will be slaughtered by the enemy outside the city walls. And I will scatter a third to the winds, chasing them with my sword.

²² So you can be sure that you will die from war, famine, and disease in Egypt, where you insist on going.”

¹⁶ the very war and famine you fear will catch up to you, and you will die there.

³³ I will scatter you among the nations and bring out my sword against you. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins.